Consciousness: the Human CHOICE.

The challenge before me, in my ongoing quest to address the sources of tyranny, is the dual task of deconstruction and construction.

Responding to historic tyrants and the philosophical bulwark offered by modern day theological and political shills is the process of deconstruction. It takes some effort to unravel what people from antiquity have said and why. And it takes more effort to cut through the intellectual demagoguery and elitism that masquerades as thoughtful, magnanimous wisdom. People need to see that the academic issues are not as cut and dried as those in the ivory tower, or under the miter and simar, would like to pretend.

The process of deconstruction is necessary because so many people don’t even know they are being tyrannized. They suffer the pain of authoritarianism but the historical doctrines tell them the pain is normal, the correct outworking of spiritual “truths.” So the work up till now has been to point to the pain and the ideas driving the pain and say: “uhh…hey… that isn’t the way that’s supposed to be.”

But the other side of this is offering an alternative, a superior synthesis of freedom. People cannot move from…a something to a… nothing. Man is not built to subsist in a moral, ethical, and intellectual vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum. Man abhors chaos.

Chaos makes us teeter at the edge of futility. Toil grates on our bones. We make enormous efforts to eliminate chaos. And I am not talking about a messy room and some dirty dishes. We all have some toleration for general disorder; some more than others. But none of us thrive under the pressure of true chaos; a time and space where no outcome is sure, no effort is rewarded, no foundation is firm, and no pain comes to an end.

Man’s hate for moral, ethical, and intellectual chaos drives him to fill in the blanks of cause and effect looking for meaning: looking for a way to order the mental anarchy. And man has proved himself truly creative in manufacturing meaning quite independent of reality, which of course is endless disaster.

I know you, dear Spiritual Tyranny reader, need an alternate synthesis. You need somewhere to hang your intellectual beanie to begin integrating the world so you can have moral clarity in the free pursuit of your life. You NEED that moral clarity almost more than you need air, because without that moral clarity you will lie down and die.

Indeed, if you take the pulse of your despair, you will notice that dejection is directly proportional to the de-affirmation of one’s life (the moral value and the sum of choices), and conversely, the greater personal affirmation of the value of one’s life, (the moral value and the sum of their choices), the greater the sense of joy and fulfillment. Make no mistake, moral clarity is an essential of human existence: which is exactly why Tyrants and Despots seek to inculcate the masses with indoctrinated despair. The closer to despair you are, the easier you are to polity.

Up till now, Spiritual Tyranny has been focused on deconstructing and answering the 5 rudimentary elements of tyranny: Dictated Good, Incompetent Masses, Universal Guilt, Abolition of Ambition, and Collective Conformity.

That deconstruction will continue, but today I am shifting gears. Today I start offering a synthesis of freedom.

To that end ….

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The Gospel according to John Immel 1: 1

1) Proximity to truth has nothing to do with embracing truth.

The Gospel according to John Immel 1: 10 – 12

10) My son, consider my words: do not let them depart from your mind. Consider the Religious Fanatic with his eyes out of focus to see truths that only the Elect, the Enlightened, the Predestined can see. If you only REAALLLLY understood his doctrines, you would never believe otherwise: critical review if his dogma is forbidden and the source of your self-deception. He evangelizes you to join him in un-conscious bliss or suffer the wrath of cosmic powers. 11) Consider the Pot smoker: with every inhale, he sucks his mind into a fog. Consider the Alcoholic: with every drink, he gulps down liquid oblivion. Consider the Crack Smoker: every puff, he bends reality into a surreal dream of sexual euphoria. 12) They all have one goal: to blunt the edges of reality. They all deliberately push their minds out of focus. They all medicate against the rigor of consciousness.

Human development travels the path from birth to the rudiments of physical perception, (Taste, Touch, Sight, Smell, and Sound) to identifying that nature of singular things (Doggy, Kitty, Blanky) to conceptual understanding (Dog-ness, Cat-ness, Blanky-ness).

Most people travel this path without too much fuss and feathers by the time they are about 12. The human race survives because–for the most part–this base level growth is instinctual. Human beings can survive with this developmental threshold, but only barely.

The rudiments of this stage are expressed simply. To be hungry means to eat. To be cold means to seek warmth. To be angry means to hit. To be sad means to cry. To feel aroused is to have sex. These are all powerful drives by necessity to fill humanity with the essential ambition to survive in a dangerous and inhospitable world. The downside of this developmental threshold is it holds people in bondage to the senses.

People at this developmental stage are driven by momentary felt needs unable to see the cause and effect of their wants, drives, and actions. The world is no bigger than the pain of hunger, the bite of cold, the drive of sex, and the fear of survival.

What lies beyond is a hazy…something…that cannot be defined because the momentary physical pressures take all of their meager focus. So overwhelming are these physical forces to the un-strengthened psyche that man is almost impotent in using his mind for much else. He is driven by a binary existence: pleasures are to be sought and pains are to be avoided. The result: man is oblivious to the broader systems shaping the time and space in which he exists.

This is the developmental threshold of animals. And as it turns out, animals are better equipped to survive because their physiology is adapted to their environment.

Human beings must adapt their environment to themselves within hours, and in some environments minutes, to stay alive.

For man to THRIVE, he must find the lever of his own existence. All humanity has this lever because it is how we were created. Like all levers, it is a tool for use at the discretion of the user. This lever to alter Man’s world, for the benefit of his life, is the capacity to “See” what cannot be seen and take actions towards creating that reality.

This lever is the power of abstraction.

Select animals demonstrate similar ability, but Man possesses a LIMITLESS ability to ABSTRACT. Man has a limitless ability to project beyond his senses and see a reality that can be created by his declarations, intentions, and actions. This is the source of fire, the wheel, and sliced bread. Without this ability, we would still be in caves with lifespans in the teens and infant mortality rates close to 70%, eating our bacon, lettuce, and tomato separately.

“Be Fruitful and Multiply, Rule and Subdue the Earth…”

Contrary to historic, simple-minded, interpretive Church tradition, this is not a command limited to breeding like rabbits. These are the first words to hit human ears. And with these words, God set forth the intended course of human existence–the foundational metaphysical reality for man’s eternal future. With those words, God breathed into our very DNA the power to realize we were even created with DNA. Within those nine words is all the requisite ambition, empowerment, intention, expectation, and justification for every action that man would ever need to carry out the global mission.

It is no accident that the creepy, crawly, flying things teeming on the face of the earth and swimming in the deep, do not have this power of limitless abstraction. This is the foundation of our charge to rule and subdue. Ruling and subduing requires the ability to abstract. How can one know the best course of action without the ability to see cause and effect of multiple factors that have not taken place? How can one command an outcome without knowing the dynamic tensions of the systems he seeks to enforce?

Only a consciousness able to see beyond the moment, to extrapolate cause and effect of infinite factors is truly qualified to rule. Only a consciousness able to suppress momentary wants can see the power of saving capital and planning its most effective use. Only an individual created in the image of a god with those qualifications is eligible to justly tame the chaotic and rule the un-subjugated.

But here is the dirty little secret of human existence. The power to abstract is accessed by CHOICE. Just like the muscle power to lift ten pounds is accessed by choice, so is the power to project beyond the rudiments of the physical moment. All humanity is faced with this fundamental decision to turn their minds on…or not. Said another way: the choice before all men is to be conscious…or not.

Levers are really nothing more than a focus for energy. Consciousness is the energy of the human mind. Consciousness is the choice of bringing the mind to bear. The lever of this focus is the power to abstract: to see what is not and act as if it is.

Man must choose to move a thousand pounds by focusing on the muscle set holding a crowbar. So also man must choose to see the cause and effect relationship between actions and consequences.

Since consciousness is not automatic, since the focus of the mind necessitates choice, freedom is at the foundation of truly human experience. By definition, the ability to see alternate paths of action, the power to see abstractions, necessitates the ability to choose a course of action.

Without this foundation, everything is determined by forces that are never impacted by human input. Such determinism renders man an ill-suited animal in a bewilderingly hostile environment. Such determinism blatantly dismisses the essence of the divine charge: “Be fruitful and multiply; rule and subdue the earth…”

Hebraic Canonical Wisdom literature is filled with exhortations to intentionally focus on wisdom, to bring to bear the mental faculties. Proverbs exhorts that finding the cause and effect of prosperous, righteous, and just existence is a self-appointed task that requires an endless commitment.

What must we focus on? The answer is the reality that is all around: the reality that is in the streets.

Proverbs 3:20 to 22

20Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: 21She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, 22How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?

Here is the Immel translation: Wisdom stands in the road screaming, “HEY STUPID, HOW LONG ARE YOU GOING TO STAY STUPID? Hey simpleton, how long are you going to stay preoccupied with the taste, touch, hearing, sight, and smell of your existence?”

Wisdom is the stage of integrating perceptions with moral and ethical principle and effective creative action. The senses are sources of information but they are not able to provide the foundations of truly human action. The senses are to be informed by refined truth. Wisdom is found merely by paying attention to the reality screaming from the street.

But here is the rub. What did I say in the Immel Gospel? Verse 1: Proximity to truth has nothing to do with embracing truth.

How many men held flint and steel in their hands and never intentionally produced fire?

How many of them watched sparks fly from the collision of flint and steel before one bright boy finally made the connection of CAUSING that collision near some leaves and twigs?

How many of those bright boys went away disgusted because they didn’t focus on the reality that the twigs and the leaves needed to be dry?

The above are all rudimentary understanding that humanity has possessed for thousands of years, but they are all abstractions–the ability to see what is NOT and act as if it DOES –required to create fire at will. The moment one man mastered these abstractions and taught it to others was the moment all humanity benefited forever. This is the manifestation of being fruitful: this is the divine mandate to rule and subdue in action. Man mastering his environment for his own appointed purpose.

Humanity benefits only as long as they continue to openly display wisdom. Again, proximity to truth has nothing to do with embracing truth.

Wisdom stands in the streets blaring its benefit and people walk by it like coins on an American Street. Wisdom is all around. Wisdom is noisy. Wisdom is demanding action. Wisdom is demanding attention. Those who refuse to focus on its voice miss wisdom’s instruction.

About the age of 12, man (of average intellectual ability) is confronted with foundational abstractions. Algebra is the first foray into numeric abstraction where the human mind is asked to live the concrete of “This many…” as the toddler holds up three fingers to substitute the variable X.

With enough effort, the human mind can use the language of Math and the rudimentary abstractions of Algebra to travel the path through Geometry, pre-Calculus, and Calculus. From these increased levels of abstraction, man is moved from the cave to the log cabin, to the skyscraper, to the cars we drive, to the moon. The world was created a dangerous, inhospitable place. Man’s job is to make it otherwise. The only limitation that man endures in this pursuit is his will to persist in the work of understanding.

I submit that ethics, religion, politics et al. are nothing more than the language of philosophical abstraction: the philosophical algebra necessary to grasp the nature of human existence and the subsequent cause and effect of righteous outworking.

But like many students in Math class, people trip over the FOCUS necessary to excel at abstractions. The pressure of consciousness begins when the young psyche is faced with the cause and effect of its own existence: the necessity to work, to create, to plan–save capital so they can create–so they can prepare for the divine mandate and order chaos. The limitation that the young mind endures is his will to persist in the work of understanding.

Here is where man dies. He intentionally exchanges truth for a lie. The result is always pain. But instead of remedializing his understanding of truth and forcibly rejecting lie, Man fights truth and brings more pain.

Pain is the pre-warning of pending death. Pain is the symptom of ill. Pain is designed to point man away from his actions and words and intentions. But instead of focusing on the wisdom before him, Man seeks to escape reality. This escape takes two forms: medication or evasion. It is here that man shows his love of darkness. It is here that man first seeks to absolve himself of the responsibility of his reality, evading the content of the cosmos before him, refusing to act on the divine mandate: “Be fruitful and multiply; rule and subdue the earth.”

The result is profoundly consistent: chaos reigns and prosperity never comes: man becomes unfruitful; man does not multiply. Man fails to work and by failing to work at his mandate of creation fueled by the power of focus, he begins to disintegrate, and the disintegration always ends in the same place: dust to dust.

I tell you the truth against the many historic voices having perpetuated a lie. Man’s death is a choice: Man has his back to the truth and feels it press into his spine, hears its drumming voice in his ear and CHOOSES to ignore its counsel. He refuses to look at the ongoing cause and effect of creation and see its order and appropriately respond to what his senses clearly show him.

Unchecked, man descends down the intentional path exchanging the truth for a lie until he lands in the muck of his own depravity: a condition of sensory addiction so consuming he forgets his place at the head of creation and ruts with the very creatures he was sent to govern. He commits the ultimate moral atrocity by prostrating himself before whatever image he chips out of stone.

This disastrous indolence produces endless psychic pain. To escape the pain, man self-medicates in an endless cycle of debauchery. He utterly fails to understand the cause and effect of his own torment. He fails to understand the life pressures upon his sensory existence are the byproduct of his own choice. Man’s bondage is self-imposed until he becomes a prisoner of flesh so tyrannical it bleeds over into all forms of despotism consuming the world in rivers of blood.

The Gospel according to John Immel 1: 12

12) They all have one goal: to blunt the edges of reality. They all deliberately push their minds out of focus. They all medicate against the rigor of reality.

In a twist of incomprehensible evil, religion has become the advocacy of Zen nothingness, of thoughtlessness, consciousless-ness, selflessness, reducing man to a mindless automaton blown about by every wind of his base drives. These twisted doctrines condemn him for failing to cultivate life beyond the flesh-driven stage and simultaneously rebukes him for seeking his own intentional awareness. No teaching can be viler than dogma destroying the roots of his God-given mandate: “Be fruitful and multiply; rule and subdue the earth…”

As said above: ruling and subduing requires the ability to abstract; a consciousness able to see beyond the moment, to plan, to extrapolate cause and effect of infinite factors. Only an individual with these qualifications can be eligible to justly subdue the chaotic and rule the un-subjugated.

Here is the source of Spiritual Tyranny. Indeed, here is the source of all bondage–people who refuse to raise their consciousness to prevail over life’s rigor.

Here is the source of your bondage. Somewhere on the life path you forfeited the responsibility of focus: the responsibility of intention. You want to drift through life avoiding the pains of consciousness. Yet, inexplicably, the pain persists. You turned off the apparatus of limitless abstractions and drugged the mind into a haze. Somehow you came to believe that somewhere in a blank, nothing, self-emptying existence the pains and the worries and the pressures and lusts would all disappear. Maddeningly, the pain worsens the closer you get to that zero, selfless “spiritual” vacuum. The spiral into dissatisfaction and despair seems to gain momentum with every passing day.

Do you want the psychic pain to stop? Are you sure? Because no one else can do it for you. It requires work. It will feel uncomfortable against the flesh that you have either pampered or starved into miserable wreckage. It will require you to get strong. It will require you to use a muscle you’ve not used often: or worse, excused yourself from the responsibility. Do you want to have the life that you always believed God provided?

Here is how you start. Engage your mind and turn on the developmental stage of abstraction. This is the lever of your fruitful, multiplying, ruling, and subduing existence.